School Board to weigh viability of THRIVE
A proposal to create an inner-city Baton Rouge public boarding school gets its first test Thursday as backers seek the approval of the East Baton Rouge Parish School Board.
A team of evaluators led by the assistant principal of high schools, however, is urging the School Board to reject the proposal, saying it needs to show it will have the money to operate a facility that will meet the needs of individual students and that’s innovative enough besides the idea of having children live there 24 hours a day.
If approved, the proposed THRIVE Academy would open in late July with just 20 sixth-graders, but would grow over the course of eight years to 420 students in grades six to 12 and a projected budget of almost $3 million a year.
THRIVE Academy is modeled after SEED, an inner-city boarding school in Washington, D.C., opened in 1999. The Baton Rouge version has been developed by Sarah Broome, a former Teach For America educator serving as THRIVE’s executive director.
Broome was in meetings most of Wednesday and responded late to a few emailed questions about the proposed charter school.
“As a classroom teacher, I saw the limitless potential of children and wanted to create a place for them that offered limitless opportunity,” Broome wrote.
She also emailed a copy of THRIVE’s 310-page application, which she submitted to the school system Dec. 5.
“For many students, attendance has been the single largest contributing factor to their academic success or lack thereof,” according to the application’s executive summary. “THRIVE’s design removes this as a barrier. For some students, this change alone would provide the support they need to be successful.”
The proposed charter school has a website, http://thrivebr.org, which includes more information.
In a page called “Our Story,” Broome talks about how the idea for the school came from her frustrations at the limits of how much she could do as one teacher.
“As with most teachers, I felt that while the data are important to inform us, it’s the relationships that motivate us,” she said. “I was continually frustrated by wanting to give my students the world but not being able to do so.”
THRIVE’s application touches on the benefits of having students essentially in school all day.
“The 24-hour learning environment provided by the boarding allows students the chance to fully grasp concepts and push to higher levels of understanding while simultaneously being supported in social and emotional development,” according to the application.
The school system has so far released publicly only the terse, one-page rejection letter to THRIVE, signed on Feb. 6 by Superintendent John Dilworth.
School Board President Barbara Freiberg said she expects more information on THRIVE’s application will be posted Thursday on the School Board’s website in advance of the board meeting, scheduled to begin at 5 p.m. The information may include scoresheets from internal and external evaluation teams.
Freiberg said that because Thursday is the first time the board will review the application, it may need more time, but she is not sure how much of a delay Broome would be comfortable with.
Broome, in an email, said the proposal has been delayed enough. Thursday is the 90-day deadline the state has given to the school district to consider such applications, she said.
“We legally have to have a final vote tomorrow because the next School Board meeting will be past the 90 days,” she wrote.
Late last year, the School Board spent almost two months reviewing a charter school proposal only to ultimately agree with Dilworth that it should be rejected.
THRIVE, however, will still be able to take its case to the state Board of Elementary and Secondary Education if the parish School Board rejects it. Broome said in an email that such a move would delay the opening of the school for another year.
Broome has sent the school system a written response to some of its concerns.
As far as a facility, Broome said, she hopes to have one nailed down by the start of the board meeting. Her written response highlights ways the school will meet the needs of individual kids and will be innovative.
“THRIVE’s residential model is at the cutting edge of education theory and innovations in the United States,” she asserted.
Specifically, she mentioned night tutoring, no absences because students live at school, and two service learning projects a year.
Fund raising, however, may be the school’s most difficult issue. While she said she has funds lined up to cover the cost of the day school, the residential component will require additional fund raising. She expressed confidence THRIVE would secure the money needed.
“We see ample reason to believe the funding exists within our community for such a model,” Broome wrote.